There are broadly two current methods to implement email signatures at a large scale as described below. Each method has advantages and disadvantages due to technical limitations.
In a first known method for email signatures, the email signatures that are created are on an email client program (eg, MICROSOFT OUTLOOK, APPLE MAIL, GOOGLE MAIL, etc.). These signatures are visible to the sender at the time of composition. The signatures can be installed into the client program if the client program supports software plugins.
Many email client programs are closed off and do not support 3rd party plugins (eg, IPHONE/IPAD MailApp. ANDROID Mail App). As such, updates to an email signature require an end-user to manually change the email signature. This process can be burdensome to end users if the email signature is to be changed frequently due to a new marketing messaging or continually changing branding requirements for an organization.
In a second known method for email signatures, email signatures are appended to an in-transit email on an email server (eg, MICROSOFT EXCHANGE) via a server-side component. These signatures are NOT visible to the sender. They are appended after the sender clicks send. This causes confusion for end-users who are accustomed to seeing their email signature and contact details when they are composing an email. If an end-user adds their own email signature to their email client, then the recipient may see an email that contains two email signatures—the one manually created by the end-user and the one centrally appended by the server.
This solution requires the server-side component to be pre-populated with sender information such as Name, Title, Phone etc. This can be a burden on the technical staff to keep data consistent. It also may require intrusive integrations with sensitive identity management systems such as MICROSOFT ACTIVE DIRECTORY or a human resources system. Even simple contact details may change frequently in an organization because of events such as marriage where a person's surname may change.
The present invention presents a solution where an end-user only needs to set their email signature once, and any further customization to the format of the email signature can be centrally managed without any plugin installation or the need for a server side component.